'Very Exciting Day': South Florida Pediatrician Ecstatic Over Pfizer's Announcement COVID Vaccine Safe For Kids Ages 5-11
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Promising results from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine study in children five to 11 years of age, and South Florida doctors say it's a good look.
"This is a very exciting day for us in pediatric healthcare," said Dr. Chad Perlyn, president of Nicklaus Children's Pediatric Specialists. "This is that first main step in Pfizer saying the data looks good, we're comfortable with it."
The data shows that the vaccine is safe, well tolerated and has robust neutralizing antibody responses.
So what's next?
Pfizer will send the data to the FDA and European Medicines Agency for approval.
Last week, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who is now a Pfizer board member, predicted that the vaccine could be available for kids by the time they go trick or treating.
On Monday, Dr. Gottlieb remained hopeful.
"If the FDA looks at his data and feels confident that demonstrates that this vaccine is safe and effective for children five to 11 you could have a vaccine within a month to six weeks," says Dr. Gottlieb.
Various vaccine sites in South Florida already give Pfizer shots to kids, but only those twelve and older.
The latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics charted the second highest number of childhood COVID-19 cases for any week – ever.
Dr. Perlyn said children are increasingly being impacted by the pandemic, which is all the more reason that they need to be vaccinated.
"Having the ability to have the vaccination certainly will help those children and limit the positivity throughout the community," said Dr. Perlyn.